The experiment conducted in the Kampinos National Park since 2015 is aimed at investigating the relationship between the dynamics of black cherry sprouting response and the type and term of implementation of the mechanical elimination procedure. It also identifies macrofungi colonizing trees undergoing eradication. Three treatments, basal cut-stump, cutting (height: ca. 1 m) and girdling, were performed on 4 terms: early and late spring, summer and winter. Each variant was conducted within two plots, and applied to 25 trees, to 600 trees in total. For two consecutive vegetation seasons, sprouts were removed approximately every 8 weeks with the exception of winter-treated trees. Qualitative data were analysed, that is, the number of trees with and without sprouts at subsequent controls, and at the end of the second season, except winter-treated trees. Initially, almost 100% of the trees cut at the base and cut high responded by sprouting. The share of trees without sprouts gradually increased during the following vegetation season, from 3 rd to 5 th repetition of the sprouts removal, depending on the variant of experiment. Girdling contributed to a delay in sprouting. The effectiveness of procedures, expressed as share of trees without sprouts at the end of the second vegetation season, ranged widely (12%-84%), and depended statistically significantly on the date of the treatment. The effectiveness was higher for treatments done in early (average 68%) and late spring (average 74%), as compared to those done in summer (average 35%). Mycological research concerned 600 trees, including those treated in winter, without sprouts removal. Occurrence of 26 taxa of macrofungi was confirmed on 25% of trees; most of them having wood-decaying properties. Chondrostereum purpureum was most frequent, colonizing 9% of trees. Impact of plots varying soil moisture on succession and rate of fungi colonization, and on sprouting response dynamics requires further research.
The impact of disturbance on animal and plant assemblages has been described mainly in terms of aggregate community properties like species richness, abundance, or productivity. However, the question how disturbance acts on species interactions, particularly on patterns of co-occurrence, has received much less attention. Here we use a large pitfall trap sample of spiders from two complexes of lake islands in Northern Poland to show how disturbance by tourist visits affects species richness, composition and co-occurrence. On the pristine and protected islands of Lake Wigry, species co-occurrence was significantly segregated. Further, island species richness and abundances could be predicted from environmental correlates, particularly from island area, soil fertility and humidity. In turn, on the lake islands that are frequently visited by tourists, species co-occurrences were random and environmental correlates other than island area failed to predict species richness and abundances. However, species composition, α−, β-, and γ-diversities, as well as average local spider abundances did not significantly differ between both island complexes. Our results show that disturbance disassembles the structure of spider communities prior to visible richness and abundance effects. This result has implications for biological conservation. The detection of community disassembly might be an early sign for factors that act negatively on ecosystem functioning. Abbreviations: NBM NMDS SAR ReceivedRevised Accepted
Competition theory predicts that species of similar ecological niches are less likely to coexist than species with different niches, a process called species assortment. In contrast, the concept of habitat filtering implies that species with similar ecological requirements should co-occur more often than expected by chance.Here we use environmental and ecological data to assess patterns of co-occurrence of regional communities of spiders distributed across two assemblies of lake islands in northern Poland. We found aggregated and random co-occurrences of species of the same genus and a significant tendency of species segregation across genera. We also found that species of the same genus react similarly to important environmental variables. A comparison of ecological traits of species of the local communities with those expected from a random sample from the regional Polish species pool corroborated partly the habitat filtering hypothesis. On the other hand, we did not find evidence for species assortment.Our results also imply that at least some observed species co-occurrences result from niche differentiation.
Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) is a widespread species throughout Europe and at the same time is dominant in Polish forests and of key importance in the wood industry. Pine stands are subjected to numerous environmental stresses, and one of them is the different physico-chemical and biological properties of post-agricultural soils compared to forest soils, which may affect the properties of the resulting wood and its industrial suitability. The research material taken at the height of 1.3 m from tree trunks (breast height diameter, dbh) in the form of sections and discs was collected in an 80-year-old pine stand from four plots, representing former agricultural and ancient forest land, and two types of habitats: fresh coniferous forest and fresh mixed coniferous forest. The forest habitat trophy had a decisive impact on the dendrometric characteristics and properties of pine wood (density, modulus of elasticity, bending strength, and compressive strength along the tracheids). The history of soil use (post-agricultural or forestry) did not affect the analyzed pine wood properties. Regardless of the forest habitat type and soil type history, pine wood at the dbh height showed a variability of features typical of century-old cultivated stands. Individual pine trunks were characterized by significant individual variability.
Contrasting trophic theories of island biogeography try to link spatial patterns in species distribution and richness with dietary preferences, arguing that the spatial turnover of species among habitat patches changes with trophic rank causing a systematic change in the proportion of plants, herbivores, and predators across habitats of different size. Here we test these predictions using quantitative surveys of plants, spiders, and herbivores as well as of omnivorous and predatory ground beetles on undisturbed Polish lake islands. We found decreased proportions of predators and habitat generalists on larger islands. Environmental niches and niche overlap were highest in predators. Variability in environmental niche width among species increased at higher trophic levels. Our results confirm models that predict a decrease in spatial species turnover (β-diversity) with increasing trophic level. We speculate that the major trigger for these differences is a reduced dispersal ability in plants at basal trophic ranks when compared to higher trophic levels.
Acidophilous oak forests Calamagrostio arundinaceae-Quercetum petraeae (hartm. 1934 scam. et Pass. 1959) are mostly known from the western part of Poland, while its eastern border has not been determined accurately. in order to address this issue, we performed a phytosociological analysis of two newly identified stands of acidophilous oak forest located in the southern part of the Mazovian Voivodeship near Kiedrzyn (vicinity of Nowe Miasto nad Pilicą) and Mikówka (vicinity of Białobrzegi). For comparison, we also examined the distribution of known patches in the region (Łódź and Mazovian Voivodeships) against this association’s background of the eastern range border.Within the identified sites, a total of 10 phytosociological relevés were taken and soil samples were collected from a depth of 10 cm. the content of organic matter, soil ph and sieving analysis were performed in the laboratory. the phytosociological material was ordered and numerically classified which gave two groups of relevés: typical for this association (seven relevés) and a degenerated form (three relevés), which has an increased share of pine in the stand. All our relevés were similar to acidophilous oak forests from the Wielkopolska region and thus different from oak-pine forests of eastern Poland. habitat conditions of the patches and the bonitation of oak were analogous to patches of this association from other parts of Poland. Furthermore, the sites we studied are located between known locations from the Bolimowska and Kozienicka Forests and are therefore connecting these two previously known areas of occurrence. this indicates that the range of the Calamagrostio-Quercetum association is at least a few dozen kilometers wider in this part of the country than the assumed range.
Landslides and erosion processes cause a high level of morphological diversity which, over the course of time, results in an increased level of forest species and habitat biodiversity. According to the principles of landscape ecology, information concerning points of convergence-understood as transition zones between elementary parts of a slope-could be interpreted as a surrogate for biodiversity. To recognize locations of land surface disruption, points of convergence derived from a high-resolution digital elevation model (DEM) were used in the research. It was assumed that relationships exist between landslide geodiversity and biodiversity and that from the DEM it is possible to select bare-earth surface structures where points of convergence can be identified. In order to verify this hypothesis, indicators of biodiversity such as richness of plant species and species diversity were checked. Based on the spatial distribution of points of convergence, locations of sample plots were planned and these indicators were verified during fieldwork. Samples were taken both in areas with a high concentration of points of convergence and in areas with a low concentration (or absence) of points of convergence. The results show that species diversity in the areas having a high concentration of points of convergence was significantly higher than in the areas having a low concentration of points of convergence. The proposed method allows the selection of parts of forested landslides that have the potential to develop a high level of biological diversity; it thus supports the management of areas of forest ecosystems with high levels of biodiversity within the scope of a cutting system. This may entail avoiding the traversal of areas that potentially possess high biological diversity with skid roads, preserving parts of these areas with thick vegetation for forest game purposes or leaving predominant and dead trees. The proposed method may also be used in scientific research into processes of biodiversity appearing on forested landslides.
Invasive Alien Plants occur in numbers differing by orders of magnitude at subsequent invasion stages. Effective sampling and quantifying niches of rare invasive plants are quite problematic. The aim of this paper is an estimation of the influence of invasive plants frequency on the explanation of their local abundance. We attempted to achieve it through: (1) assessment of occurrence of self-regenerating invasive plants in urban woodlands, (2) comparison of Random Forest modelling results for frequent and rare species. We hypothesized that the abundance of frequent species would be explained better than that of rare ones and that both rare and frequent species share a common hierarchy of the most important determinants. We found 15 taxa in almost two thirds of 1040 plots with a total number of 1068 occurrences. There were recorded 6 taxa of high frequency–Prunus serotina, Quercus rubra, Acer negundo, Robinia pseudoacacia, Impatiens parviflora and Solidago spp.–and 9 taxa of low frequency: Acer saccharinum, Amelanchier spicata, Cornus spp., Fraxinus spp., Parthenocissus spp., Syringa vulgaris, Echinocystis lobata, Helianthus tuberosus, Reynoutria spp. Random Forest’s models’ quality grows with the number of occurrences of frequent taxa but not of the rare ones. Both frequent and rare taxa share a similar hierarchy of predictors’ importance: Land use > Tree stand > Seed source and, for frequent taxa, Forest properties as well. We conclude that there is an ‘explanation jump’ at higher species frequencies, but rare species are surprisingly similar to frequent ones in their determinant’s hierarchy, with differences conforming with their respective stages of invasion.
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